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Comment by WalterBright | Hacker News Reader

I don't see any reason why state governors should sit around waiting for the federal government to provide masks and order emergency actions. The governors are empowered to do those things, and it's their job to do so.

In fact, California used to have a huge stockpile of medical supplies, put in place by Arnold (a Republican). It was abandoned under the Democratic Governors, and disposed of.

Edit: found the cite

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-03-27/coronavi...

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Because it makes literally no sense for 50 states to compete and outbid each other for a scarce set of resources when you already have an umbrella organization, the Federal government, that could coordinate the purchases and the allocation as not every state is hitting the peak at the same time. But it's seemingly every state for themselves instead. A complete failure and lack of leadership and shirking of responsibility from the Federal government, directly contributing to a loss of American lives.

When it comes to disasters, the Federal government's job is to write checks- they're the gov't equivalent of homeowner's insurance.

You may wish it were otherwise, but that is not how it is currently set up.

But mostly to those who give something back to the check writers. The government equivalent to giving you a table with a view if you promise to leave a good review on Yelp.

Do people really believe this? I mean, really? I'm not arguing everything's perfect, but come on...

Washington State currently has surplus medical capacity and has been packaging it up and shipping it to states who need it.

If the governor of your state is doing nothing while blaming the federal, that's a problem with your governor. As I said, they have the power to do these things, and the responsibility to.

Doesn't really absolve the federal government in any way. The United States has a Federal Emergency Management Agency which historically has stepped up to the plate during these types of situations.

In what way is this case different?

There are plenty of cases where states have been trying to follow the approach you suggest and have had their orders seized by the federal government. It seems like it's still quite unclear which approach states are supposed to follow so it seems perfectly reasonable for governors to be pointing fingers where the blame lies.

Colorado: https://www.denverpost.com/2020/04/04/coronavirus-colorado-p...

Los Angeles: https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-04-07/hospitals-...

New Jersey: https://www.newjerseyhills.com/echoes-sentinel/news/somerset...

Broader piece: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/06/us/politics/coronavirus-f...

If you want the feds to supply masks, they have to get them from somewhere. Furthermore, if you want the feds to supply masks, you'll get them at the discretion of the feds, not local authorities.

You're seeing what's wrong with centralized planning of things that don't need to be centralized.

> If you want the feds to supply masks, they have to get them from somewhere.

Just like the states, or counties or towns or households...

Except the federal government can order private businesses to manufacture whatever it needs, something no governor can do

> something no governor can do

The idea the governor of a $222 billion budget can't get some masks made is a bit absurd.

> The idea the governor of a $222 billion budget can’t get some masks is a bit absurd

The federal government just passed a $2 trillion stimulus package. And they’re thinking of doing another one.

And in addition to the power to print money, it can also order private industries to manufacture masks, tests, vaccines, ventilators, even tp

And it still can’t get the job done.

There are not enough masks or tests

The federal government can order ventilators, but you need the part.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-24/ventilato...

It can also order or overpay for the creation of a successful vaccine, but you need data and time to see if it works.

> There are not enough masks or tests

https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/22/21189881/apple-donating-m...

Maybe Tim Cook should run for Governor. Cook knows how to get stuff done, and he has no legal powers whatsoever compared to the Governor.

Sure. But how does that spur a car manufacturer that's never made ventilators, yet is trying to make them, move faster? We are going to send an army general to GM and all of the sudden we are going to crank out 60,000 ventilators?

> You're seeing what's wrong with centralized planning of things that don't need to be centralized

Procuring masks on the market sure seemed to work out great for states in the earlier days of this incident:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddisalvo/2020/03/30/i-spent...

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1245501506205421570.html

We started out with decentralization and now we've switched to something in between. Neither have worked.

The federal government also hasn’t provided the confidence that aid won’t be given on a political basis.

Under a democracy, allocation of resources is always going to be driven by politics. Whether it aligns with facts, logic, greatest good, or science is purely arbitrary.

Not quite. "Driven by politics" doesn't mean that significant deviations from rational management shouldn't cause criticism, attempts - successful or not - to do things around federals and some formal complaints (lawsuits). The latter is a democratic way not to abuse the political driver.

It being political doesn't mean you can't criticize it. Get enough people to agree with you, and you can get change. But that's politics - not reason, logic, or science.

> a scarce set of resources

Making paper masks and gowns is not like building an aircraft carrier.

In a crisis like this, their job is to do _everything_ in their power to support their people. This involves lots of domestic action, which I think we are seeing.

What this also entails is that if there's federal resources, they should be doing everything in their power to secure them too.

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